Creating a green data centre –- one that makes energy-efficient data storage technology purchases, reduces its data footprint and trims utility bills -- will be a top priority for many organisations in the New Year. While green storage can result in cost reductions, going green must not affect the performance and day-to-day operations of the data centre.
We've compiled our most recent business best practices on green storage and green
data centres to provide you with needed technical advice and insight into how to save your
organisation money without affecting performance. Check out the resources below for an explanation
of green storage, how to cut power and cooling costs, ways to increase the energy efficiency of
your data centre, how effectively leveraging MAID and MAID 2.0 technologies can cut your power
consumption, and more.
Green storage
explained
Storage growth in some parts of the UK, most notably parts of London, is highly constrained (in
some cases blocked altogether) because there is simply no more electricity to be bought at any
price. Storage managers must mitigate the rising cost of power and its availability with
technologies and practices that can improve energy
efficiency. This article explains the concept of green storage,
examines issues arising in its deployment and considers the future of green storage practices.
Green
storage essentials: Addressing power, cooling and space issues
With energy costs on the rise, storage admins are looking to green storage technologies to help run
their data centres more efficiently. But you'll need a lot of planning, some time to learn a new
set of metrics and some creative thinking to cut power
and cooling costs and still provide the capacity the company wants. Storage vendors are well
aware of this new exigency, preparing new enterprise data storage products or enhancing existing
ones to help storage managers trim power
consumption. This E-Guide will get you started or, if you're already in the midst of a
power-pruning project, help you further along your way.
The state
of MAID in data centres
Almost every storage vendor offers some form of disk slowdown functionality. But in general, disk
spin-down technologies like massive array
of idle disks (MAID) are getting less attention than say, data deduplication, which is all the
rage. Some analysts say an increasing focus on energy
conservation in data centres should shine more light on MAID, but adoption rates remain
relatively flat. So what should storage managers know about MAID and other spin-down
technologies?
Benefits
and limitations of MAID storage: A step toward a green data centre
Storage vendors are increasingly offering MAID storage capabilities in their systems because of the
green opportunities the technology presents. MAID
technology ensures that only those disk drives that are actually in active use are spinning.
Therefore, MAID significantly reduces power consumption and prolongs the lives of disk drives. In
this podcast, Simon Johnson, data centre practice lead at GlassHouse Technologies, discusses the benefits
and limitations of MAID, as well as MAID levels and how they operate.
Green
storage best practices control costs, increase energy efficiency
A mixture of technologies and tactics to control data
centre power and cooling costs can greatly increase an organisation's storage energy
efficiency. But without implementing
green storage best practices, simply utilising new technologies will only go so far. This tip
examines some green storage best practices to follow, including avoiding overprovisioning,
revisiting your tiering strategy and RAID policies, consolidating arrays, leveraging MAID and
more.
Green
storage product roundup
Disk arrays are the bane of green storage. Few make any claim to be doing anything about the
fundamental fact that spinning disks means using power. Most vendors, however, place the emphasis
on techniques that improve
storage utilisation, such as information lifecycle management (ILM), virtualisation and thin
provisioning. Learn how disk arrays,
tape and switches translate to the world of green storage.
This was first published in January 2010
